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Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

What a Prize this Clown Is.....Taking Advantage of a Lady's Home

Here is a goof that needs a little come uppance ,....I suspect after seeing this story in the GAzette the snake will be leaving this ladies house (one way or the other) I am sure there must be some characters still around Verdun who would readily volunteer to 'Clean House' as it were. Good luck to this gal,I hope no damage is done to her Verdun home.

MONTREAL - Elizabeth Hennigar put her Verdun house on the market this year to help finance the purchase of her retirement home in New Brunswick.

For almost 20 years, Hennigar, 75, had run a group home out of her house on Melrose St. – so she wanted to spruce up her property before putting up the for-sale sign.

Just before Christmas, Hennigar said she hired a local handyman named James Clarke to do minor renovations. She had met Clarke though her daughter, Sandra Mathieu, who lives next door to Clarke’s father in Verdun.

Hennigar agreed to allow Clarke to live in her house during the renovations because he didn’t have a place of his own. Their verbal agreement stipulated that he would move out and find an apartment after he was paid for the renovation work, she says.

Mathieu said Clarke had done work for her in the past and her mother was trying to give him a break by allowing him to stay in her house.

“It seemed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

After Mathieu paid Clarke $2,400, Hennigar called to thank him for a job well done. She asked him to leave the house by Jan. 31, adding that a real-estate agent would be showing the house to prospective buyers.

Hennigar says Clarke promised to leave. But three days later, she says, Clarke told her daughter he wasn’t leaving because he couldn’t find anywhere to live.

Almost three weeks later, Hennigar says Clarke is still squatting in her house – and she and her daughter don’t know how to get him out.

“He has stolen my house,” Hennigar said in a telephone interview from California, where she is staying with her son.

“The real-estate agent said he took people there but it was filthy dirty and smelling of smoke.”

Clarke refused to be interviewed when The Gazette turned up at the house Monday. He said the matter is between himself, Mathieu and the police.

“I don’t care what the public thinks; I don’t give a s---.”

Mathieu says she called police after Clarke refused to leave, but officers told her they couldn’t intervene because it’s a civil matter.

Montreal police told The Gazette Mathieu needs to take up the case with the Régie du logement.

But Mathieu says the rental board told her it can’t help because she and Clarke haven’t signed a lease.

She says she called Hydro-Québec to cut the power, but it refused because someone is living there.

Real-estate agent Jean-Philippe Loiselle told The Gazette “the house was a complete mess” when he brought people to see it at the end of January.

“There were beer bottles everywhere and it smelled of cigarette smoke.”

By going public with her story, Mathieu is hoping to shame Clarke into leaving.

“What is wrong with the system that he is allowed to stay there?” Mathieu asked.

“He seems to be protected at every turn.”

Jean-Pierre Leblanc of the Régie du logement wouldn’t comment specifically on Mathieu’s case, but said the rental board can intervene if someone is living illegally in someone else’s house without lease.

The homeowner must send a letter to the occupier giving him one month to vacate.

If the person doesn’t leave, the owner can seek from the rental board an “expulsion order to remove an illegal occupier.”

At that stage, Leblanc said, the squatter usually leaves before bailiffs intervene.

Whenever homeowners allow someone to live in their house, he suggested, they should sign a lease or a written agreement stating when the person is required to leave.

Cases of squatting are uncommon in Quebec, Leblanc said.

Usually they occur around July 1, when renters stay in their dwelling after their lease expires.

“It does happen, but it is rare.”

.......................... I would suggest a good old fashion rat exterminator company .......the guys who specialize in two legged rats.That's just my humble opinion,what a no good bum this guy is.Not only does this snake stay in the ladies home,but he disrespects it by making it a mess ......HV&RV

11 comments:

From what I read (online Gazette), the "gentleman" seems very tidy. His well-kept appearance and the polite way he handled the reporter would indicate that he obviously had a proper upbringing, and that he's merely waiting for the better weather to truly give the home a thorough inspection. Maybe he's related to some of the home inspectors we've seen in Ontario?

I think you are right Tom, he certainly does come across as someone who would be equally at home breaking into, or rather squatting in houses in Westmount,as he is in Verdun,.certainly a 'cut above' most of us great unwashed..........lol HF&RV - Les

What a great looking front door, it really is neat how Verdun homes have had so many upgrades with new gallery's and new windows & doors,they really make some of the old places look great.Plenty of them now have all had the interiors modernized too.Sure looks a lot different from the old doors with singlepane glass,and the old twist style doorbell............remember those doors where you had to twist the bell...... Cheers ! HF&RV - Les

Well I am......hahahaha Hi shanzzie ,I doubt anyone could really like this character in question,however we are just having fun...Cheers ! HF&RV -Les I don't take a lot serious,and usually joke about most things,(many times misunderstood) but whether joking or just playing Devils advocate (which I have been known to do) I will call a spade a shovel at times....lol

Just a note, the guy is still there and the home owner's daughter (Sandra) has now hired a lawyer to get this loser out of her mother's house. She was offered pro bono work from a major law firm. He will not leave, he seems to think that he's got every right to be there.

Totally unbelievable that the owner virtually has no rights,......in the old days he would have been long gone ( still would be today,if it was handled differently from the start) Now they will have to follow the BS process... "I like the old way"

I like the old way also .. laws need to change at the Regie. All well and good to protect the tenant, but the landlord should get the same respect. And since this loser doesn't have a lease, he should have been taking out the first night the cops were called.

I cannot believe this is still going on. and what is this fool doing to the house, I hope he's not wrecking it, because you know he most likely can't afford a ham sandwich never mind pay for any damage he does. This is a prime example of when family & friends would take this little _rick out ,he's nothing more than a bully it seems to me, & they are usually gutless. Btw: the 'P' in his description is 'silent' just like in Psalm...............hahahaha Cheers ! HF&RV